Hydronymic Evidence of Migrations in Western Slovakia

The article deals with problems of ethnocultural reconstruction, focusing on the hydronymy of West Slovakia, the area neighbouring with Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic. The author distinguishes several hydronymic strata pertaining to different ethnic groups. The earliest population of the region was Slavic, the Slavs have left their mark in toponymy, particularly, in hydronyms with the ancient Slavic formant -ava. Another stratum is represented by Hungarian hydronyms, Hungarian tribes having arrived in the region in the late 9th — early 10th centuries. Both historical and toponymic data show that in the 12th–18th centuries the region was populated by various Germanic ethnic groups. The author argues that the most notable Germanic “mark” in the toponymy of West Slovakia was left by the first — Bavarian — wave of migration which took place between the 12th and the 15th centuries. The studied material also displays some evidence of the Croatian language influence which is, however, more pesent in oikonymy and anthroponymy than in hydronymy. The analysis of historical and hydronymic data leads the author to conclude that besides the above-mentioned ethnics, some other peoples populated the territory of West Slovakia in the past, though they did not play a significant role in the history of the region